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View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoDan Honda | Contra Costa Times PHOTOST
op: Chief Operating Officer Aaron Forth works in the San Francisco offices of Wrapp, an app-maker that leverages connections on social networks to send gifts to friends.

Buying a birthday present for a friend? Forget the wrapping paper and bow. This is the age of
social gifting, and all you need is a Facebook account and mobile application.

The latest buzz in e-commerce is a new category of business that lets people give gifts on
social networks or through texting or email. Text a relative a digital gift card to say happy
birthday — no last-minute trips to the post office necessary.

Dozens of social-gifting companies have cropped up since 2011, promising to make giving gifts
easier for consumers and drive more sales for retailers. And it’s not just a startup fad; Facebook
and Amazon each launched gifting features last year.

“It’s been a land rush in the gift-giving space,” said John Poisson, founder and chief executive
of online gift-giving service Wantful. “This is a massive business opportunity.”

But some say the fad will be short-lived. The reason people like giving and receiving gifts,
critics say, is the excitement of unwrapping something and the personal connection of a meaningful
exchange.

“Gifting hasn’t proven itself in any meaningful way,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, a retail analyst
with Forrester Research. “I don’t think that anyone is giving this in lieu of real gifts
in-person."

Social gifting has splintered into a number of niches as companies stake out their place in an
increasingly crowded landscape. Some apps send digital gift cards, while others let you buy goods —
anything from a 5-pound bag of gummy bears to lingerie — and have them delivered from your
smartphone. There are apps offering free coupons to post to a friend on Facebook and others that
let you buy a friend a beer.

Social-gifting companies might have found a sweet spot among online and mobile consumers looking
for convenient and instantaneous ways to check that gift off their to-do list.

“I can wish my friends a happy birthday and give a gift in one fell swoop,” said San Francisco
Bay area resident April Wall.

Liora Avitan said social-gifting companies are more aligned with consumers’ shopping habits.
Without malls or shopping centers near her New York City apartment, she wants the convenience of
buying gifts from her laptop or phone.

“I’m doing everything online already,” she said.

Avitan, 27, uses Wrapp, a Sweden-based app that has emerged as the darling of the social-gifting
scene. She relies on Wrapp’s automated birthday notifications — the app is synched with Facebook —
to remind her when to buy for her friends and family.

“I think I give more gifts now than I used to,” she said.

Wrapp hit 1 million users 14 months after launching — faster growth than Pinterest or Twitter.
It’s moving many of its Stockholm operations to its San Francisco office, which opened last May,
because the U.S. is its fastest-growing market.

Wrapp’s digital gift cards can be downloaded for free, and most are worth $10 or less. The gift
cards can be sent through Facebook, email or text, and recipients keep the card in a digital wallet
on their phone but have to redeem it in the store.

Aaron Forth, the company’s global chief operating officer, said that shoppers tend to spend more
money than the amount on the gift card once they’re in the store.

Nanci Booher of Portland, Ore., said she exchanges Wrapp gift cards with her son and daughter.
They post them on each other’s Facebook pages, and she takes her kids shopping for school clothes
and video games.

“We love doing it together,” said Booher, 45. “It’s a total bonding thing.”